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Summary and Reviews of Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Lost In A Good Book

A Thursday Next Novel

by Jasper Fforde
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  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 2003, 416 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2004, 339 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with the second installment in what is sure to become a classic series of literary fantasy.

Jasper Fforde and his ever-resourceful literary detective heroine Thursday Next are back in the second installment of what promises to be one of the most talked-about series of the decade

If Thursday thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken. The unforgettable literary detective whom Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times calls "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry" had another think coming. The love of her life has been eradicated by Goliath, everyone's favorite corrupt multinational. To rescue him Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of "The Raven." But Poe is off-limits to even the most seasoned literary interloper. Enter a professional: the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations. As her new apprentice, Thursday keeps her motives secret as she learns the ropes of Jurisfiction, where she moonlights as a Prose Resource Operative inside books. As if jumping into the likes of Kafka, Austen, and Beatrix Potter's Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies weren't enough, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Fforde's magnificent new adventure, the second installment in what is sure to become a classic series of literary fantasy.

I didn't ask to be a celebrity. I never wanted to appear on The Adrian Lush Show. And let's get one thing straight right now – the world would have to be hurtling towards imminent destruction before I'd agree to anything as dopey as The Thursday Next Workout Video.

The publicity surrounding the successful rebookment of Jane Eyre was fun to begin with but rapidly grew wearisome. I happily posed for photocalls, agreed to newspaper interviews, hesitantly appeared on Desert Island Smells and was thankfully excused the embarrassment of Celebrity Name That Fruit! The public, ever fascinated by celebrity, had wanted to know everything about me following my excursion within the pages of Jane Eyre, and since the Special Operations Network have a PR record on a par with that of Vlad the Impaler, the top brass thought it would be a good wheeze to use me to boost their flagging popularity. I dutifully toured all points of the globe doing signings, library openings, talks and ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Introduction to Lost in a Good Book

Thursday's hopes for a quiet life with her new husband, Landen, are dashed when a seemingly impossible string of coincidences involving a falling car, a disgruntled Neanderthal, and a mysterious young woman leads to some extremely close brushes with death. Her jumpy ChronoGuard father rescues her just in time, only to reveal to her that the world is destined to become one big, pink blob of Dream Topping in a matter of days unless they can figure out how and why it happens. And just when Thursday discovers that she is pregnant with Landen's child, the Goliath goons eradicate Landen from existence, threatening to make it permanent unless Thursday retrieves her nemesis Jack Schitt from his ...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
A lively, pun-packed sequel to the Welsh novelist's debut, The Eyre Affair (2002)....Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels should check out Fforde's engagingly skewed comic utopia. As one of his characters predicts the likely result will be paroxysms of litjoy.

Publishers Weekly
Time flies--and leaps and zigzags--while reading this wickedly funny and clever fantasy. Would-be wordsmiths and mystery fans will find the surreal genre-buster irresistible.

Reader Reviews

Cloggie Downunder

hilarious
Lost in a Good Book is the 2nd book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Fresh from her adventures in The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next is enjoying married life until she is informed that her husband, Landen Parke-Laine, died 38 years ago: ...   Read More
Nadia

Fantastic! "Lost in a Good Book" is a bit darker than the Fforde's first novel in the series ("The Eyre Affair") -- it is nonetheless as riveting as the first. It's exciting to plumb more deeply into the various characters as ...   Read More
Cindy

Almost as good as the first Next!!

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